15 films picked for Cannes workshop

Program helps projects complete financing

Zhang Yuan's "Executioner Garden," Faouzi Bensaidi's "Death For Sale"
and Diego Lerman's "Moral Sciences" are among the 15 projects selected
for the Cannes Film Festival's production workshop.

The
fifth edition of the workshop, known as the Cinefondation Atelier, runs
May 15-22. Its organizers arrange networking opportunities for
projects' directors and producers to help them complete financing for
their projects.

Two U.S.
filmmakers made the Atelier cut: Jake Mahaffy ("Wellness), with
religious redemption drama "Free In Deed," and Caran Hartsfield with
"Bury Me Standing, a comedic drama set in a Philadelphia hood.

The
Atelier will feature three feature film debuts: "Standing";the
Taipei-set Filipino migrant tale "Pinoy Sunday," from Malaysia's Ho Wi
Ding, and Betrand Mandico's "The Man Who Hides the Forest," about a
filmmaker's crazed expedition into the depths of Siberia.

South
African John Barker will be pitching "The Umbrella Man," about a
minstrel carnival, and Egyptian Atef Hetata brings "Oblivion," a
Cairo-set portrait of the pursuit of money and virility.

Rounding
up the selection are Andrea Segre's "Shun Li and the Poet," which won
Rome Festival's European Project Prize for its original take on
immigration, and Turk Seyfi Teoman's "Our Grand Despair," a male
friendship drama adapting Baris Bicakci's novel.

The Atelier boasts a high success rate: nine of last year's 15 projects are now completed, according to Goldenstern.